A Luger Week in Portland

[Dwight Gruber]

which didn't turn out anything like I thought it would when it started.

It all began when Russ Withem clued me in on a Luger which was going to be included in an auction here in town. Too good an opportunity to pass up, I figured. The preview was last Friday evening and, by coincidence having an afternoon off work, I decided to stop and check a couple of my usual gun haunts on my way.

First stop was at a dealer who sometimes has interesting guns for sale. Sure enough, in his case was a 1920 Commercial .30 in some random revolver holster. I checked it out, it was pretty tired. But the way the grips were worn, the edges of the magazine bottom worn nearly away; and the way it slipped into the holster like it was made for it, told me that this gun had spent -a lot- of time strapped to someone's belt. Its the kind of thing which makes one wish that the Luger could talk. The dealer's story, however, was an asking price more than twice what the gun was worth (an expected circumstance at this store), and I couldn't justify spending $895 for the romance.

The next stop was a pawnshop I've had good luck at. Lo and behold, what should be staring at me from the gun case but a 1918 Artillery, all matching, about 85% with no pitting. It did have a couple of problems, but no sensible person is going to pass up an all-matching, original Artillery for $600. Feeling rather sensible, I put it on layaway.

Two-for-two, not bad I thought for a random sampling.

The Luger at the auction house was a 1917 military, two mags and a holster. The gun was on the shady side of 90%, dark bore, the mags not considerable, the holster was really quite nice. It wasn't the Luger for which I have been waiting all my life, but the thought did occurred to me that if it was hockey it would be a hat trick, I would have a 1917 Army, Navy, and Artillery. But the auction isn't until Wednesday.

The next day, Saturday, was a gun show in Longview, where I was offered a spectacular deal on an original Artillery stock/rig. Not having any kind of experience with such things I thought I'd better do some research, told the seller (a friend from whom I have bought before) that I was interested but wasn't going to buy today. He mentioned that he was going to the auction for the Luger, and we'd talk more then.

Wednesday night, and the auction came around. Turns out my friend wasn't too interested in the Luger after he saw it, but I was looking for a bargain. I thought that even if the bid went up that $650 would be a good deal, $700 a fair one...so I bid at $700, for a brief, glorious moment the bidding paused and I thought the Luger was mine...and then I sat in slack-jawed amazement as the bidding continued upward to a hammer-drop at $1,700! No bargain on a Luger this day.

So today is Saturday, a week (and a day) later. I went to the gun show in Vancouver, where my friend was going to have a table, to take another look at the Artillery rig. The lesson is, always do your research. It turned out to be a culpable fake. I didn't buy, my friend got burned. That being the case, however, I had some money in my pocket, and as I walked around the show ran into a 1920 Commercial police with unit marking. I struck a pretty good deal, and came away with a rather respectable consolation prize.

All in all a rather enjoyable, certainly educational, and definitely surprising week. You never know what you are going to find until you look.

--Dwight